TA ExoBake

This script Bakes the motion of the selected Item(s) to Null(s) it creates, with the Prefix of your choosing, preserving both Hierarchical and Schematic relationships... _without_ affecting the animation or keys of the source Item(s).

This is good for when you need to wrangle data generated by other Motion Plug-ins that change their data when new Keyframes are created for the Item being moved, prohibiting "standard" Baking methods.

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Why:

With crazy deadlines looming for a TV Pilot, I was asked to shift the animation for a character by 356 frames. The problem was that I'd used a motion Plug-in to drive the character Object's position, which didn't take kindly to having its Keys shifted, nor to having its motion Baked!

I needed to extract the character Object's position, without affecting it, and then load-in the extracted motion onto the character Object so I could remove the self-referential plug-in-driven-motion, and then Shift Keys for All Items to the desired render-range.

To get the job done that day, I hacked-together TA Pose-Copy and TA Pose-Paste with a quick script to get the gig done... but then I got to thinking how something that would do everything in the Baking process automatically, and intelligently, would have been helpful many times in the past... and likely would be helpful to both myself and others in the future!

And so... TA ExoBake began its evolution.

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How:

Select an Item(s) in Layout.

Activate TA ExoBake.

Enter the Prefix to be added to the Selected Item(s)' name(s) when the Baked Nulls are created.

Enter Start frame, End frame and Frame Step for Baking,(this can extend well beyond the Start/End frames of your Scene).

New Nulls are created that hold the animation of your original Item(s), even if the source Item(s) motion is driven by self-referential motion plug-ins!

The new Nulls are named respectively to your originally selected Items, obeying the same Hierarchical and Schematic relationships as their source(s)!

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Due to several factors, not the least of which being the dedication to getting the Kaze feature film, finally and fully off the ground in Grassroots (donation-based) fashion...

...This downloadable resource from LoupGuru.com is now available for a small, $5.00 donation to the Kaze Grassroots Feature Film Fund!

Thank you for your support of ultra-independent animation production!